Buttonhole sewing machine



March 7, 1933. `F. A. REECE 1,900,076

BUTTQNHOLE SEWING MACHINE Filed Oct. l, 1931 2 Sheets-fsheet 1 FTdnKln Afeece MQW/M1 ATTyS.

March 7, 1933. F] A, REECE 1,900,076

BUTTONHOL SEWING MACHINE Filed Oct. l, 1931 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Fig@ .-3 Fig@ 2726 zeg,

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FmnKHn A. Reece byJWMM A1B/ s Patented Mar.- 7, 1933 7 UNITED STATS PATENT OFFICE EEANKLIN A. EEECE, 0E :BECOKLINE MASSACHUSETTS, 1AsSIerNoE To THEEEECE EUTToN HOLE MACHINE COMPANY, 0E BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, A CORPORATION OIEy MAINE BUTToNHoLE SEWING MACHINE Application mea' october 1, 1931. serial Na. 566,234.

This invention relates to buttonhole sewing'machines and particularly to a sewing machineconstructed to Stitcha buttonhole in Suchy a Way thaty the stitches Willhave a bight of lessV Width on one side of the fabric than on the other. A buttonhole of this type is illustrated in the co-pending application of Joseph Pikul, 17,1931. v l

In the stitched buttonhole which is made by the sewing machineherein described the portion of the thread loops Which pass through the Work havean inclined position Withrela.

tion to the plane ofthe Work so that on one face they emerge from the Work ata lesser distance from the buttonhole slit than they do on the other face of the Work. The buttonhole is so made that the purl will preferably be formed on the Side of the `Work Where the stitches have the Wider bight, the opposite side ofthe vvorlr beingthe back face of thev Work. An advantage of this buttonhole is thatrelatively'short -portions of each stitch Willpappear on'the back of the fabric thus giving the fabric more nearly the appearance of a hand-sewed buttonhole.

In carrying out my invention 'I' provide means for bending the edge of the goods at the buttonholefslitas the stitches are formed so that each thrust of the needle which penetrates the goods will pass through the goods at an angle thereto thereby producing the desired effect in the stitched buttonhole.

In the preferred formof my invention the bending'of'the edge. of the goods is vcarried out progressively around the buttonhole as the sewing proceeds'so that at any time only the portion of the goods Where the stitch is being formed is thus bent. This bending of the edge ofthe goods serves todisplace the Work and thus open vup the buttonhole slit Slightly at the point Where the needle makes? its thrust through the slit, thereby giving desirable-needle clearance at Athe buttonhole slit Without any spreading of the buttonhole suiiiciently to stretch the fabric. This dis-V placement of the Work to give needle clearance is carried out progressively along the edge of the buttonhole slit, the displace- Serial/No; 551,397, tiled Julyk ment at any time occurring at the pointv Where the Stitch is being made. f f f In vorder to give fan "understanding vof the invention I have illustrated in the drawingsy a selected embodiment thereof "which will now be described lafter which the novel features willV bepointed out'in the appended Fig. 7 lsan enlarged section on theline ff-7, Fig. 6x

, The main features of the' Sewing machine are similar to those usually found in button-- hole sewingv machines.

The Work 1v in which the buttonholeiis to be Stitched iS held in position during the stitching operation by the usual Work-clamping means Which comprises tWo clamping feet 2 carried by arms 3 that are pivoted at t and Which serve to clamp the Work-v 1 against clamp plates 5 that are carried by the bed 6 of the machine. f .Y

The stitch-forming mechanism is of the usual type and comprises a :needle 7 carried by a needlebar 8 thatv vertically reciprocates in the head portion. 9 of the stitch frame 10,k

said needle co-operating with under thread mechanism (not shown) carried by a turret 11 that is situated beneath the Work. The buttonhole cutter by which the buttonhole slit is cut comprises the cutter element 12 situated beneath the Work andy a-'co-operating cutting element larranged above the work and mounted'on a cutter lever 14 pivoted at 15, said lever being actuated by theusual cam mechanism.

The turret 11 Carries a throat plate as usual, which is situated beneath thework and Which is provided with a sewing opening 40 through which the needle 7 passes during its penetrating thrusts. The under thread, and stay cord, if one is used, are led to the work through this sewing opening. This is the usual practice in buttonhole sewing machines of this type.

In accordance with my present invention I have provided a throat plate and work clamps of special shape which are so de'- signed that when the work is clamped the work along the edge of the slit in which the stitches are being formed will be turned up at an angle so that when the needle 7 penetrates the deflected or turned-up portion of the work it will pass through the work at an angle thereby producing the narrow bight on oneside and wider bight on the other.

The throat plate is indicated at 16 and it is formed on its upper side with the workdetlecting projection or protuberance 17. This protuberance has the inclined work-dei'lecting face 18 on one side which extends somewhat above the upper face of the clamp v plates or mats 5 on which the work 1 rests.

The adjacent edges of the two mats or clamp plates 5 are cut away so as to provide a relatively wide space 19 between the adjacent edges 20 of said mats, the purpose of this being to allow room for freedom of movement of the protuberance 17 during the stitching operation.

The work clamps 2 are also of special shape and are so disposed relative to the mats orl clamp plates 5 that the inner edges of the clamp feet overhang the inner edges 2O of the mats.

The under work-engaging face of each clamping foot has the clamping surface 21 situated substantially parallel to the surface of the mat 5 and disposed above the inner marginal portion of said surface and it also has the upwardly-inclined portion 22 which is located on the inside of the inner edge 2O lof the corresponding mat 5 and which is so disposed over the work-deflecting surface 18 of thethroat plate.

` When the work clamps 2 are in workclamping position the work is clamped between the feet 2 and the mats 5 along Zones situated somewhat back from the edge of the buttonhole slit 25 thereby leaving the portion y26 of the work immediately circumj acent the slit 25 free.

The protuberance 17 is so disposedthat when the work is clamped by the clamping feet 2 the work-deflecting surface 18 of the protuberance 17 on the throat plate will engage the free portion 26 of the work at one side of the slit 25 and will bend said portion of the work upwardly against the inclined face 22 of the clamping feet as shown in Fig. 3. At any point in the buttonhole sewing cycle the work-deflecting face 18 is acting on a limited portion of the edge of the work at on the portion of the work immediately cir-I cumjacent the buttonhole slit 25 progressively from one end of the buttonhole slit to the other and back again. The portion of the work which is thus bent upwardly or deformed is that portion of the work in which vthe stitches are being concatenated and hence throughout thestitching operation the stitching is performed in `a portion of the vwork which is bent upwardly from the plane of the work.

It will be understood by those skilled in the art lthat in sewing a buttonhole the needle 7 will make thrusts alternately through the buttonhole slit and through, the work as indicated by the two dotted line positions of the needle in Fig. 3. The thrust of the needle which passes through the work and which is indicated byy the right hand dotted line position Fig. 3 will extend through the work at an angle to the face thereof because of the fact that the work is turned upwardly and by so doing a buttonhole stitch will be formed which has a narrower bight on the top of the. goods thanon the bottom of the goods.

After the stitching has been performed and the work is removed from the machine the stitches on thebuttonhole will have the construction. shown in Fig. 7, the portions 27 of the stitches which pass throughthe work extending at an inclination to the plane of the work with the result that a less amount of each stitch will appear on the top face ofv the work as indicated at 28 than on the bottom face of the work as indicated at 29. In the making of buttonholestitches the purl is usually produced on the under sidel of the work and, therefore, what is eventually to be the front face of the work will be on the bottom during the sewing opera tion while what is to be the backrface of the work will be on top. The stitches are thus formed with a narrow bight on the top of the goods and the wider bight on the bottom or front face of the goods.

The bending upwardly of the edge of the work of the buttonhole slit as shown in Fig.

is stretched to such an extent that when they buttonhole is completed the sides of the but-` ing upwardly of the edge of the work will give the desired needle clearance without the necessity of spreading the buttonhole toany appreciable extent, if at all.

This displacing of the edge of the goods which gives the needle clearance is carried ou't progressively around the buttonhole and at any time occurs only at the'point where the slit thrust of the needle is being made and hence with this invention not onlycan a buttonhole be made with a narrower bight on one face of the fabric than the other but the necessary needle clearance is provided with aminimum distortion of the work.

I claim:

1. In a buttonhole sewing machine, the combination with work-holding means, of stitch-forming mechanism including a reciprocating needle, the alternate thrusts of which extend through the work, and means for progressively maintaining a relation between said needle and the portion of the work through which it passes at any stitch, whereby the needle extends through the work at an angle to the surface thereof other than a right angle.

2. In a buttonhole sewing machine, the combination with work-holding means, of stitch-forming mechanism including'a reciprocating needle, the alternate thrusts of which extend through the work, and means to detorm the portion of the work on which the needle is acting thereby to place it in an angular position relative to the direction of movement of the needle whereby the vneedle extends through the-work at an inclination to the surface thereof.

3. In a buttonhole sewing machine, the combination with work-holding means, of stitch-forming mechanism including a reciprocating needle, the alternate thrusts of which extend through the work, and means for progressively deforming the portion of the work circumjacent the buttonhole slit as the stitching proceeds so as to place the portion of the work through which the needle penetrates at any thrust in an angular relation to the direction of movement of the needle, whereby the needle will extend through the work at an angle to the surface thereof.

4. In a buttonhole sewingmachine,the combination with work-holding means, of stitchforming mechanism including a reciprocating needle, a throat having a sewing opening in which the needle operates, said throat having a protuberance to engage the portion of the work immediately circumjacent the buttonhole slit, and force the latter into an angular relation to the direction of movement of the needle.

5. In a buttonhole sewing machine, the combination with two mat members for supporting the work each side of the buttonhole slit, of clamping feet for clamping the Work against the mat members, the inner edges of the clamping feet overhanging the inner edges of the mat members and the overhanging portions having a bevelled work-engaging face, stitch-forming mechanism including a reciprocating needle, a throat having a sewing opening in which the needle operates, said throat having a work-deilecting protuberance on its upper end to engage the work at the edge of the buttonhole slit, and bend jghe latter upwardly against said Iinclined ace. Y

6. In a buttonhole sewing machine, the combination with stitch-forming mechanism and work-holding means having a relative movement to sew kthe stitches around the edge of the buttonhole, of means to progressively displace the work at the edge of the buttonhole slit as the sewing proceeds to give needle clearance in said slit.

7. In a buttonhole sewing machine, the combinationwith stitch-forming mechanism and work-holding means having a relative movement to sew the stitches around the edge of the buttonhole, of means to displace in an upward direction the edge of the work at the buttonhole slit at the sewing point and progressively as the sewing proceeds thereby to give needle clearance in the buttonhole slit.

8. In a buttonhole sewing machine, the combination with stitch-forming mechanism and work-holding means having a relative movement to sew the stitches around the edge of the buttonhole, of means to displace the wol-kat the edge of the buttonhole slit in a direction transverse to the plane of the work and progressively as the stitching proceeds thereby to give needle clearance in the button- 'hole slit.

9. In a buttonhole sewing machine, the combination with stitch-forming mechanism including a needle operating from above the work, of work-holding means, said stitchforming mechanism and work-holding means having a relative movement to effect the progressive sewing of the buttonhole stitches around the buttonhole, a throat plate having a sewing opening to receive the needle, Aand means associated with the throat plate to displace in an upward and outward direction the portion of the work at the edge of the buttonhole slit in which the stitches arebeing formed. f

In testimony whereof, I have signed my name to this specification.

FRANKLIN A. REECE. 

